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Average approval time for moderated packages is currently under 10 hours! In my last post, I talked about things we were implementing or getting ready to implement to really help out with the process of moderation. Those things are: The validator - checks the quality of the package The verifier - tests the package install/uninstall and provides logs The cleaner - provides reminders and closes packages under review when they have gone stale. The Cleanup Service We've created a cleanup service, known ......

UppercuT comes with VersionBuilder. A common problem many of us have is versioning our DLL assemblies and keeping track of what’s in production versus what’s in source control. If you rock with Subversion, UppercuT has this problem solved. So how do you take advantage of VersionBuilder? UppercuT automatically generates an assembly version file for you during build. All you need to do is hook every project up to it. Notice in the same directory the solution is in, after you run build.bat, there is ......

So now you are rolling with UppercuT, but you don’t yet have Continuous Integration (CI). You can make that happen with CruiseControl.NET (or any other CI server like TeamCity or Hudson). This article is geared to CruiseControl.NET (CC.NET), although there will be future articles on other CI servers. This is specifically geared towards CC.NET 1.4 and above, because it takes advantage of preprocessors. First a few sideline notifications and then we'll get right into it. UppercuT Compatibility with ......

UppercuT comes with DeploymentBuilder. What is DeploymentBuilder? Perhaps you maintain a bunch of deployment scripts that point to all your different environments. We now you can define a template batch file and let UppercuT create all of those deployments scripts for you. It's less for you to maintain, and you no longer have to update a bunch of different scripts. Just one or a couple depending on the types of deployment. To help people better understand what it can do, we've included a starting ......

UppercuT comes with ConfigBuilder. What is ConfigBuilder? ConfigBuilder will build a configuration file per environment so you no longer have to maintain a bunch of configuration files. In any project you have app.config (or web.config) files. You just create a .template file next to it. The web.config has a file next to it named web.config.template. What do you name the app.config template files? You have to name the file based on what app.config becomes when visual studio builds the application. ......

Recently I posted about UppercuT, the insanely easy to use build framework. There are so many things you can do with UppercuT, that it may make your life easier. We decided to make it even easier to use UppercuT by using a convention most people in the .NET world understand, the .config file. This replaces the build.settings.bat file for those of you who were using it. All you need to do now is navigate to the Settings folder and open the UppercuT.config file in your favorite editor. Get Building ......

UppercuT is the insanely easy to use Automated Build Framework! Automated Builds as easy as (1) solution name, (2) source control path, (3) company name for most projects!!! Uppercut was recently called NAnt for the masses! UppercuT is for developers who want a powerful build framework without a lot of set up work. UppercuT is for anyone who needs a standard way of building applications across an entire organization. UppercuT is for anyone who wants to concentrate on just writing code. What can UppercuT ......

Recently I mentioned this.Log. Given the amount of folks that were interested in this.Log, I decided to pull this source out and make a NuGet package (well, several packages). Source The source is now located at https://github.com/ferventc... Please feel free to send pull requests (with tests of course). When you clone it, if you open visual studio prior to running build.bat, you will notice build errors. Don’t send me a pull request fixing this, I want it to work the way it does now. ......

Recently we had a contest to see who could beat my time to get from no code to deployed. Thanks to everyone that participated and everyone that thought about participating in the contest. Most Creative From Zero To Deployed Contest Extended! Unfortunately there were not enough entries to award the most creative video for ZtD. So what we are doing is extending the most creative until May 15, 2011 @ 11:59 PM CST. This gives you almost two months to get your videos in! If you entered before, you are ......

To set up Tarantino to run you follow the instructions from my last couple of posts. Once you've done that, you set up a file to run the project. This is how you set up your folder structure. Under db are two folders, Create and Update. In MSBuild, all of the required files to run, plus my MSBuild file (tarantino.proj). Here is how you set up a batch file to call MSBuild to run your database updates. This file is named dbdeploy.bat. @echo on SET DIR=%~d0%~p0% C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Fr... ......

The following is a script that I used to help me clean up a database and reduce the size of it from 95MB down to 3MB so we could use it for a development backup. I will note that we also removed some of the data out. I shared this with a friend recently and he used this to go from 70GB to 7GB! UPDATE: Special Note Please don’t run this against something that is live or performance critical. You want to do this where you are the only person connected to the database, like a restored backup of the ......

Refresh database is an workflow that allows you to develop with a migrations framework, but deploy with SQL files. It’s more than that, it allows you to rapidly make changes to your environment and sync up with other teammates. When I am talking about environment, I mean your local development environment: your code base and the local database back end you are hitting. Refresh database comes in two flavors, one for NHibernate and one for Entity Framework. I’m going to show you an example of the one ......

This is a pretty sweet little tool. Rex (Regular Expression Exploration) is a tool that allows you to give it a regular expression and it returns matching strings. The example below creates10 strings that start and end with a number and have at least 2 characters: > rex.exe "^\d.*\d$" /k:10 This is something I could use to validate/generate the Regular Expressions I have created with both UppercuT and RoundhousE. Check out the video below: Margus Veanes - Rex - Symbolic Regular Expression Exploration ......

Tomorrow on February 24th, 2010, I’m going to be giving a presentation on UppercuT (UC) at Virtual Alt.NET (VAN). If you are interested in learning about an automated build tool that will save you time and get you to a professional build in moments, not days, you can log into the VAN around 8PM CST on Wednesday (tomorrow). You don’t even have to go to a physical place to see the presentation! You can hang out from the comfort of your own home and watch me walk through how easy it is to use UC. Here ......

If you use VMWare/VirtualPC and you want to offload your source code repositories to your host OS and code from it inside the VM, you need to do a few things to fully trust the share. I’ve found that I keep heading out and searching on this every time I need it so I thought I would write it down this time to save myself the trouble next time. CasPol Changes Save the following as caspol.bat: %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Fram... -q -machine -ag 1.2 -url file://e:/* FullTrust %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Fram... ......

DropkicK (DK) has been in development for over two years and has been used for production deployments for over a year. Dru Sellers originally posted about DK back in 2009. While DK isn’t yet as super easy to grok as some of the other ChuckNorrisFramework tools and offers little in the idea of conventions, it is still a stellar framework to use for deployments. DK works well in environments where you know all of the environments you will deploy to ahead of time (although not required due to the ability ......

From my previous post on SidePOP, I wanted to make it even easier to configure SidePOP. So instead of the configure_mail_watcher() from the last post, this is what it looks like now: private void configure_mail_watcher() { EmailWatcherConfigurator configurator = new SidePopXmlConfigurator(); foreach (EmailWatcher emailWatcher in configurator.configure()) { emailWatcher.MessagesReceived += runner_messages_received; emailWatcher.start(); } } Pretty. Notice that Runner became EmailWatcher and instead ......

Background Sending email has long been easy to do with the .NET Framework. There really hasn’t been a facility for checking email though. I recently had a need to be able to check email with and send a response with Bombali (a monitoring tool). I went searching for examples or a solution I could use. I found a few articles on this from a few years ago including the .NET POP3 MIME Client. I never found anything that was free and I never found anything that was easy to configure. Those who know me ......

When you have command line arguments to parse (whether on Windows or Linux), the place to look is Mono.Options. To date, I have not found anything better to get the job done. It is a single C# file if you do not want to download the entire Mono Library to use it. I was first introduced in Mono 2.2. The equivalent product is NDesk.Options by Jonathan Pryor. His single Options.cs file has been implemented as Mono.Options. To demonstrate how easy command line parsing can be, I’m going to show you is ......

Versioning your database is as important as versioning your code. How much time do we waste currently before we are even productive when we have to fix or enhance something in a database? RoundhousE versions your database how you want. The recommended way is to version based on source control, but that may not be your solution. But for a moment let’s pretend it is. Why would versioning your database based on source control be a big help? What happens if you get a prod fix (or work order) to fix a ......

I’m a huge fan of NHibernate. It has excellent documentation and just makes the whole job of getting things into and out of the database much more enjoyable. There is a whole series of posts on NHibernate from one of the committers, Ayende. When Fluent NHibernate (FNH) came out, it was like butter on sliced bread. FNH makes it even easier to use NHibernate. Ayende had a post a while back on how to use Event Listeners. That helped me to get to event listeners set up. Event Listeners namespace somethingimportant.we.hope.... ......

This week I introduced RoundhousE and it’s getting quite a stir. Let’s take a look at the configuration. We are going to focus on the MSBuild/NAnt task configuration for now because the console isn’t yet complete. The console will actually have at least this much if not more (we’ve talked about how to use it to create the migration scripts and not just run them). Because we like to be able to infer things, we have determined that there are only two required items. Thus – the minimal configuration: ......

I just started the appetites with my last post on RoundhousE. RoundhousE itself has a migration sample to help you get familiar with how it works. You can get to that by using a subversion client to download the source. When you download the RoundhousE source from SVN and run build.bat, you get a code_drop folder. Go in there and look at the deployment folder for a sample run. Prerequisites: Locally installed (and running) SQL Server 2008 Run That Bad Boy When you get into the code_drop folder, take ......

Less maintenance. Less work to package during your automated builds. Too easy. Remember Our Old Friend _PublishedWebsites? You’ve probably seen the _PublishedWebsites folder when building websites in automated builds. If not you can stop paying attention now. Still with me? Great! So you know how it packages up everything nicely with content files going where they should with nearly ZERO cost to your build scripts. All you need to do is override the output directory (OutDir) and you get this feature. ......

Easy and Instant deployments and instant scale for .NET? Awhile back a few of us were looking at Ruby Gems as the answer to package management for .NET. The gems platform supported the concept of DLLs as packages although some changes would have needed to happen to have long term use for the entire community. From that we formed a partnership with some folks at Microsoft to make v2 into something that would meet wider adoption across the community, which people now call NuGet. So now we have the ......

For those that have not yet heard, NuGet went v1 recently along with a whole slew of tools from the Microsoft folks. I’ve been lucky to be a part of the NuGet project and see it take shape over the past few months with community input and contributions. Even though v1.0 was released, we are already moving forward with getting ideas and prioritizing features for the next version. To follow the announcement, UppercuT (UC) v1.2 now includes support for NuGet out of the box. Plus, it will handle versioning ......

The thing to realize is that the destination is never the most important part of the journey. It’s the journey itself. When you start a journey, you are never fully sure where it is going to end up. We started the journey down package management for .NET three times with Nu[bular] (we in this context means the nu team, not me in particular, I was only involved in the last reboot) before we decided to try an existing infrastructure with Ruby Gems. I have always said that I would use the best tool ......

Dru and I were recently featured on Herding Code Podcast. In the podcast we talk about everything from package management in general to Nubular (Nu) to other package management systems (OpenWrap, Bricks, and Horn, although horn was/is slightly different) to the possibility of Microsoft releasing a package management system. It was a good time and I enjoyed doing the podcast, but the herding code guys start recording at an insane 10:30 PM! I have no idea how I made it through the whole thing and was ......

There has been a lot of response in the community about this gems idea we’ve been talking about. I even had the opportunity to sit down with Nick Quaranto, the guy behind Rubygems.org, over coffee Sunday and talk about where we think we are going and what it will take to get there. One of the biggest things that everyone wants to see carrying this idea forward is that we migrate off of Rubygems.org and have our own gem server. And we all agree this is a great idea. There are just two things that ......

In my last post I didn’t mention dependencies. Dependencies are their own animal. They require a couple more things to be in place. Let’s talk about those things. In the .NET world, the dependency for compiled bits is usually an exact version of a reference. Let me explain. So for example, you have a reference to log4net, and you don’t ILMerge it into your assembly. You now have a dependency that the DLL needs to be there and a particular version (outside of redirecting the bindings). So what I’m ......

In my last post I showed gems being used for .NET. Now let’s talk about How. Most of this stuff I’ve learned over the past two days, so if I have a mistake here or you have a better idea, please don’t hesitate to offer a better solution. The GemSpec The Gem::Specification reference is your friend. In order to create a gem, you need to define a gem specification, commonly called a “gemspec”. A gemspec consists of several attributes. Some of these are required; most of them are optional. From here ......

Imagine we are awhile into the future. How do you get open source releases down to your project so that you can use them? How do you get the products down to your computer so that you can use them? Is it easier or harder than the way we’ve always done it before? The Past and Present Before we can go there, let’s look at what we do now (the past is really the same for us here). Let’s say I want to use NHibernate. What do I do? There are basically three paths we all follow in this process. 1. Never ......

In a previous post I mentioned how I was going to show you how UppercuT (UC) has the ability to make gems stupid simple to create and publish. You ask if gems can get any easier and to that I answer, “Why YES, they can!” How about just filling out the information for the gemspec, running a build and having a nice, shiny new gem ready for publishing? Rock The Gems Basically you want to get the latest release of UppercuT. You can download it or grab the source and compile. There are already instructions ......

The Ruby community has enjoyed a great user experience with a package management system they use called Gems. A gem is a package (or a library), compressed with some additional metadata, and can be either source files or binaries. Let’s focus on binary gems. We have the same concept in .NET (DLLs/EXEs). You may have references to other DLLs. When you want to update a reference you are using on a project, you may also need to update its dependencies as well. And so on and so forth. A package management ......

One thing most database change management tools use is SQL Server Managment Objects (SMO). Most do that because ADO.NET doesn’t allow the batch statement separator keyword GO in sql statements. So most people write off the ability to use a database change tool for sql server without actually having the sql server installed on the machine that is running the tool. This is not a reality in some organizations, especially when licenses for SQL server are limited. Split the GO Recently, a few guys have ......

What if there was a tool out there that could let you specify a structure for a project (visual studio solution + everything else) and save you up to 3+ hours of work every time you started a new project? Warmup was an idea by Dru Sellers to remove all of the setup work required every time you set up a new project. You know, create the solution, add projects, put in your references, etc. Then how about getting the infrastructure for your service/website/console set up as well with things like IoC, ......

If you are seeing text messages coming in from the year 2016 and thinking this is a total WTF (mate?!), put down the phone. There is no need to break the phone. It’s fine. Nearly all WM phones are experiencing this right now. I repeat, there is no need to break the phone! There is a fix for this that requires maybe five minutes of your time. DISCLAIMER: You do this on your own terms. I am in no way liable if you follow these instructions and damage or render useless anything at all including but ......

This last year I had a focus to get more involved in Open Source (OSS). The year before I had been involved a little by submitting a patch here and there, but 2009 was a big year for me in OSS. I now manage 4 open source projects that have solved a need for me and others. Coming up on the end of the year it was important for me to get some final touches into at least two projects to finish out the year. UppercuT UppercuT (UC), for those of you who have never heard of it, is an automated build tool ......

The Classic Infinite Email Loop When building an email parser, one must think about validating an email address that sends you a message. Just because that email address is where the message says it is from does not really mean that is a valid email address. Some of you can already see where I’m going with this. I was building something in Bombali that would respond to emails when receiving them. When Bombali received a message from an address, Bombali would send a response. No checking on the address. ......

One of the coolest projects I have been working on is how to solve issues with database versioning and migration. A project dubbed RoundhousE. RoundhousE is an open source automated database deployment (change management) system that allows you to use your current idioms and gain much more. Currently it only supports Microsoft SQL Server, but there are future plans for other databases. It seeks to solve both maintenance concerns and ease of deployment. We follow some of the same idioms as other database ......

So you have stored procedure and it’s having issues. When you run it, it returns really fast. When .NET runs it, its like a dog. The first thing you learn about SQL Server is that it has something called ARITHABORT and it is turned on in SQL Management Studio and OFF in ADO.NET. Yeah you heard that right. OFF. So when you find this out, your first thought is WTF, mate?! Why do we have to make this hard on ourselves? Reference post: http://sqladvice.com/blogs/... ......

If you are using UppercuT, you will be pleased to know that it now supports Mono Migration Analyzer (MoMA for short). All you have to do is upgrade. And with the design of UppercuT, we’ve made it super simple to upgrade. How hard is it to upgrade UppercuT? Just drop in the files in your build folder, check for changes to the lib folder (especially in the NAnt directory) and new folders, and then check for any changes to the .bat files and UppercuT.config and you’re done. Mono Migration Analyzer Here ......

Here’s how you can sign a set of assemblies in a project with a key using UppercuT: 1. Open the UppercuT.config file. 2. Change the following to “true”: 3. Done. Did I mention that creates a private key if it is not there as well?! This was from a patch sent in by Dru Sellers. Thanks Dru! With this knowledge you shall build ......

The presentation for TopDNUG went pretty well. There were some good questions and back and forth. The room really seemed to come alive when in a matter of less than ten minutes I added UppercuT to two different Open Source projects (Reflexil and Quartz.NET) and had them off of the ground and building. Full builds, too. With versioning, compiling, unit testing, packaging, etc. I also unveiled the new logo for UppercuT: Here is the slide deck: UppercuT Presentation (may need to be renamed to .pptx) ......

Recently I reported that there were going to be some changes to UppercuT. And there have been. These are a summary of some of the most significant changes: Uppercut now reports it's version. This is helpful to know where you are versus the current version. It also reports the time when it finishes a build. Custom Replacement Tasks are now implemented. This is to add a task to the custom folder that completely replaces the normal workings of the build step it is replacing. A pre or post custom step ......

So Gallio has been out for a little while and I admit that I am a little slow when it comes to looking at new frameworks. I mean there is so much to look at and only so much time in the day allocated to programming. Anyway, there really isn’t much documentation out there yet for using Gallio with NAnt. I am of the thought that is due to all of the people who are really smart with builds are using Rake and/or PSake now. So I set off to create another universal script. This basically follows the conventions ......

If you’ve ever built a .NET application that runs out of memory constantly, it’s because you are hitting a 2GB limit. You may have known about marking an assembly “/largeaddressaware”. You may have not. The process of doing this is actually somewhat easy once you learn about it. You normally just start a Visual Studio Command Prompt (found in Start Menu under Microsoft Visual Studio version/Visual Studio Tools). Then you find the compiled application and run the following command: editbin /largeaddressaware ......